The Kaoru Installments
by Kaeghlighn
Summary: Set post-manga. The Host Club is attending university in Boston, and Hikaru and Kaoru have decided that they should take different classes, which means, of course, that they are exposed to new people, most prominently one girl in particular; Lizzy.
1. A Brief Case of Mistaken Identity

**A Brief Case of Mistaken Identity**

_OCxKaoru_

Hikaru was walking by himself across the university's campus to get to his Marketing class. Kaoru hadn't signed up for Marketing this quarter. In fact, Kaoru had plans today. He was meeting up with a girl from his Fashion Design class, but he was running a bit late and didn't have her cell phone number yet.

"Heeeeey! Kaoru!" a girl's voice called out to Hikaru. He wasn't exactly surprised, but he turned at the sound of his brother's name and saw a dark-haired girl jogging over to him. She stopped in front of him, panting, and adjusted the scarf she was wearing. "You're late," she pouted at him, fists on her hips. "And when did you dye your hair?"

Hikaru blinked at the girl. He'd never seen her before. "Who are you?" he asked bluntly.

She gave him a look of mock hurt with one of her hands on her chest. "How dare you forget me, Kaoru! We're going out today." Although now she just looked offended. But then she was smiling again. She grabbed his wrist and started dragging him in the opposite direction of his class.

"Hey! Hey! Let go!" Hikaru protested, attempting to pull his arm back from the girl's rather remarkable grip. "I have to get to class!"

"Whaaaat? Yesterday you told me you had a free day today!" the girl exclaimed.

"No, I didn't. I don't even know you, crazy girl. Now let me go. I really have to get to class." Hikaru finally got his arm back from the girl's grip.

"Geeze, Kaoru, that's a pretty terrible excuse – !"

"And I'm not Kaoru!" Hikaru interrupted the girl.

"Ah! Lizzy! Sorry I'm late!" And then a ginger haired boy ran up and stood next to Hikaru. "Hey, Hikaru, aren't you supposed to be in class?"

And now the girl was seeing double. Except that their hair was different.

"Yes, I _do_ have a class," he huffed. "I'll see you later, brother." With that the black-haired boy walked away. He checked the time on his way and then took off at a sprint. There was an important quiz today in Marketing.

She stood there, confused for a few seconds. "Kaoru!" She turned to the redhead twin. "You didn't tell me you had a twin brother! Do you have any idea what I just did?"

Kaoru smiled deviously at Lizzy. "You called him by my name, didn't you?"

"Yeaaaaaaaaaghhhssssss!" she growled in a weirdly frustrated form of "yes". Her face turned red and she pressed her hands to her cheeks. "That's so embarrassing," she whined.

Kaoru laughed, though actually it kind of hurt that she mistook his brother for him even when Hikaru had dyed hair and he didn't, and apologized, "Sorry, Lizzy, I didn't think you would run into him anytime soon since campus is so big."

"I told you about _my_ brother and you neglected to tell me about _yours_, though."

"Sorry, really, I am, Lizzy." Kaoru shrugged and gave Lizzy a charming smile. "Come on, let's go get that coffee, hm?"

"Fine, fine," she waved a hand dismissively. "You can make it up to me by buying me a large cookie _and_ my chai tea latte."

"Because I wasn't going to do that anyway," Kaoru rolled his eyes.

Lizzy laughed. "Hehe, I love that in a guy," she commented.

"What, money?" he drawled.

"The willingness to buy me things before I even mention it. Your abundant amount of money matters not to me. Well, that's kind of a lie. It's nice that you have lots of money, but if you didn't have lots of money I would still like you just as much. And the sarcasm. Gotta love a guy who employs sarcasm well." Lizzy grinned up at the foreign boy. Kaoru laughed.

"Let's go then, shall we?"

* * *

><p>Kaoru looked a bit distracted, Lizzy observed from across their two-person table. She had both of her hands wrapped around a rather large cup of chai tea latte. He had coffee in front of him.<p>

She sipped her latte using the loudly coloured straw provided by the establishment. After a few moments of silence Lizzy decided to speak up. "You all right, Kaoru?"

"Hm?" Kaoru looked up a little startled. "Oh. No. I'm fine."

"You sure?" Lizzy tilted her head a bit. "Is it about earlier? When I mistook your brother for you? It's okay. I would be upset, too."

"It's…fine, Lizzy, really. It happened a lot back home," Kaoru explained. He didn't want her to worry or anything. Sure, it hurt a little, but he understood her confusion. It was partially his fault anyway.

"Oh, well, now that's just upsetting!" Lizzy shook her head, her black curls bouncing about her face.

"Upsetting?"

"I would be furious if someone I was friends with mistook me for my identical twin that had different hair! You can totally be mad at me! _I _would be mad at me!"

Kaoru gave her a confused look. "Do you want me to be mad?" he asked with a furrowed brow.

"Nnnnnoooooo, not really." Lizzy shook her head again. "Just saying I would get it if you were."

Kaoru let out a light laugh. "Lizzy, I'm not mad. It was my fault, I didn't tell you about Hikaru. I should have said something earlier. It was honestly my mistake."

Lizzy hummed and then took another sip of her latte. "Your English is much better, by the way."

"It's from talkin' to you all the time."

"Awwww, you're even droppin' 'G's off your words like a true English speaker! So cuuuuute!"


	2. The Girl With the Green Scarf

**The Girl with the Green Scarf**

_OCxKaoru_

The first day of class always seemed to be a bit nerve-wracking right up until entering the room. At least, that's the way that Lizzy felt. She spent a few hours before heading to class in her dorm room, feeling mildly queasy and repeatedly changing her clothes. The class was _Fashion Design_, so she felt that the stress was somewhat warranted. It would be embarrassing if she showed up to the class and didn't look, well, fashionable. She may have actually tried on everything in her closet before finally settling on a pair of light gray skinny jeans that were actually fairly loose on her and didn't look like they were painted on, two studded belts (one to hold up the pants and the other to hang loosely over one hip), a black camisole underneath a white deep v-neck t-shirt with a large black sketched flower on it, and her favorite pair of shoes (a trusty pair of black Converse high-tops). As she stood in front of her full-length mirror she decided that she was a little bit too _monochrome_.

So Lizzy pursed her lips and cast her eyes around the room that she had to herself. And then her eyes landed on it. It was perfect.

All in all she decided that she looked pretty good. Now for her makeup and hair. Eventually, after trying about twenty different combinations of both she settled on letting her hair just be itself, down and curly and barely brushing her shoulders, and wearing just a bit of mascara on her upper eyelashes. She preferred looking fairly natural anyway, she rationalized.

Kaoru had been in the classroom for nearly twenty minutes now, deciding that being very early would be infinitely better than being late. But now he was bored, sitting at one of the tables in the Fashion Design classroom by himself. All of the tables were meant for measuring and cutting fabric and each had at least four stools around it. There were other students in the room, but none of them were paying him much attention, if any. He was also pretty sure that he was the only male in the room. The only one who was blatantly male in the room, he guessed. There was one person in the room that he really wasn't sure about. They really were androgynous, and that coat was not helping.

Either way, it felt weird to not have girls flocking around him. Maybe if Hikaru was with him… No. Kaoru shook his head. They had decided to take different classes this quarter to become more independent from each other. Going to this school was the best opportunity to do so since no one but the rest of the Host Club knew about them or was even aware that they were twins or had siblings. Everything was new and different. It was even strange to not hear a lick of Japanese in the room. In the entire school, either. Everyone spoke English (or Spanish, or Ukrainian, or Russian, and he could have sworn he heard some German the other day).

Kaoru… felt out of place.

And then she stepped into the room. There were only a few minutes left until class was supposed to start when the door opened and in walked a girl wearing a green scarf around her neck. She looked nervous, clutching the strap on her messenger bag the way that she was. But his eyes were drawn to the scarf that she was wearing. The green of the scarf wasn't too light or too dark, not even too bright and not in the least bit dull, either. It was made out of a fluttery fabric that looked like it probably wouldn't keep someone warm but managed to despite its looks. It was a perfect shade of green – a sort of foresty-emerald green. In short, Kaoru loved this girl's scarf.

When Lizzy stepped into the room she didn't know what she was expecting, but she was definitely not expecting to be stared at by a very, very attractive Asian young man immediately upon entering the room. Once she got over the fact that he was staring at her she was confused as to why such a cute guy was sitting alone. She frowned as she observed the room. She felt a whole lot less nervous now and instead felt rather purposeful. All of the other tables had at least three students at them, chumming it up and chatting. But this boy, this guy was sitting by himself. Perhaps the other students were intimidated by his good looks? Or perhaps – and she had just noticed this – the fact that his clothes were impeccably fashionable. It was easy to tell that he either just had an eye for fashion or he had grown up around it.

In either case Lizzy decided to sit at his table with him. She chose the seat adjacent to him, to his right. She placed her messenger bag on the table in front of the spot she chose, and, in a very businesslike manner, stuck her hand out for the boy to shake. "Hi. I'm Elizabeth. Call me Lizzy."

Kaoru eyed Lizzy's hand before shaking it. "My name is Kaoru." He felt that he let his hand linger too long with Lizzy's before he quickly took it back.

The girl smiled. Kaoru had an accent that she didn't recognize as native to the United States. "You're not from here," she observed with a short laugh.

"I am not," he agreed.

"You are also very stiff," Lizzy commented. "Loosen up, dude." She leaned forward on the table, crossing her arms on top of it. "Where're ya from?"

Kaoru wasn't sure how to feel about this girl and her straightforwardness. But she was being nice to him and actually talking to him, so it was a bit relieving, really. "Japan. I came here from Japan."

"Really? I mean – oh, duh!" She hit her forehead with her palm. "I should've recognized that just by your name. Gosh, I'm a dummy. I really should've realized that you're from Japan since I'm kinda into anime and manga. Some of the characters are named Kaoru. Did I pronounce that right? I really don't wanna mispronounce your name. I would feel awful if I did!"

"It is fine, Lizzy." Kaoru had some trouble with those Zs and Ls and he was hesitant to use the nickname that she told him to call her by since it seemed all too personal. But he had to remember that America was different from Japan. Intimacy was indicated in different ways than he was used to.

Lizzy had trouble not smiling. It was cute. His speech was all formal and he had pretty much called her "Riji". She was about to advise him that Ls were the most easily pronounced when the tip of the tongue touches the roof of the mouth when a woman burst into the room and started talking very loudly and in such a manner as to inform the students that she was, in fact, their teacher and they had better damn well pay attention to what she had to say because it could be crucial.

"Alright, class, I hope you like the people you're sharing a table with because they are now your team for any and all group projects for the quarter!" the woman announced. Lizzy and Kaoru looked at each other – Kaoru seemed unsure but Lizzy gave him a bright grin – as their instructor went on to talk about her expectations for the class and what the class could expect from her, et cetera, et cetera.

At the end of class Lizzy decided to leave the room with Kaoru. Just because. "I know we've just met, but, uh, eat lunch with me?" Lizzy asked. "I don't know anyone here yet, and you seem like a pretty cool guy."

Kaoru blinked in surprise. "Ahhh, yes. Okay. Lunch." There it was again - just faintly, Ls into Rs. "Ah, where would you like to go to eat?"

"Oh, I was just thinking about getting lunch in the caf."

"'Caf?'"

"Short for 'cafeteria.'"

"Oh. That seems like a good idea."

Lizzy let out a light laugh. "Y'know, I can totally help you with your English a bit. I mean, I'm not the best but it _is _my first language so I can help with pronunciation and colloquialisms and stuff. Grammar isn't my strong suit, though."

Kaoru wasn't sure if he should be offended or not, but the smile she had on her face was so sincere that he took it that she really was trying to be helpful. "Ah, thank you, Lizzy. I think that speaking with you will be very helpful by itself. But I will be sure to ask you if there are phrases whose meaning I am not sure of."

Lizzy laughed again. "Man, you are so formal! Be prepared for a lot of conversations with me." She gave Kaoru a mock serious look. "Be prepared."

Kaoru couldn't help but feel marginally worried. But, as it turned out, he needn't have been worried at all. Lizzy just seemed to ramble until she realized that she was talking too much and then would ask him a question, which he would answer to the best of his ability. Finally, though, after they were done eating and were now wandering out of the cafeteria Lizzy seemed to have very little to say.

"Hey, so I have another class in a half an hour, so I should probably get going," Lizzy told him, trying to excuse herself without being too awkward.

Kaoru nodded. "What is your next class?" He was mildly curious. He kind of liked this girl. She seemed like she could be a pretty good friend. It would definitely be a good thing to be friends with someone who wasn't in the Host Club.

"Character Design, actually. I'm really arts-oriented."

Kaoru felt like a bobble-head when he nodded again. "Really? That is interesting."

"Haha, thanks, um, so I'll see in class, then, Kaoru." Lizzy began walking away. A breeze blew by, picking up her green scarf, causing it to flutter about her person. And then Kaoru remembered what he had wanted to tell her.

"Ah, Lizzy! I, ah, I like your scarf. It is very…fashionable." Kaoru smiled as Lizzy turned back to him with a light blush and a smile.

"Thanks. I'll see you later!"


	3. Homework and the Grinch

**Homework and the Grinch**

_OCxKaoru_

"_What the hell is she doing here?_"

Lizzy blinked and looked up from the thick InStyle magazine in front of her; she had the feeling that it was about her despite not understanding a word that was just said. She was lying down on the bed with the blue sheets and comforter on it, feet kicking in the air near the pillows. The bed she was on sat directly across the bedroom from the orange coloured one. There was a desk against the wall between the two beds, and that was where Kaoru sat, flipping through a smaller fashion magazine and occasionally looking things up on the open laptop on the desk.

Kaoru didn't look up as he replied, "Speak English, Hikaru. It's rude to speak Japanese around those who don't know the language."

Lizzy's eyes flicked to the ginger twin as he spoke and then back to the black-haired one in the doorway. Hikaru sighed in a frustrated manner. He eyed the girl; she had a pen dangling between her teeth and her ankles were crossed in the air.

"_Fine._ Why the hell is she here on my bed?" Hikaru began removing his nice dark blue wool coat.

Lizzy looked down at the bed she was on then back up to Hikaru. "I'm on your bed?" she asked around the pen in her mouth, but her question was overlapped by Kaoru speaking over her.

"We're doing homework, Hikaru."

Hikaru raised an eyebrow as he put his coat away in his closet. "You call looking at magazines 'homework'?" he asked incredulously.

"It's for Fashion Design," Lizzy supplied, her eyebrows furrowed. It seemed strange to her that this boy, who looked exactly like the one she met up with regularly in class and for it save for the hair, could be so different from his twin. For one thing he seemed to have an obvious dislike for her, which was actually kind of a mutual feeling. But it felt really weird for her to dislike Hikaru when he and Kaoru shared the same (very attractive) face. She removed the pen from her mouth. "We're supposed to find things we like and combine them into at least five new outfits each."

Hikaru eyed her again. "You're in Fashion Design?" he asked in a rather scathing manner, to which Lizzy took offense.

But she looked at her clothes before opening her mouth to retaliate. A pair of her brother's jeans that she'd stolen just before leaving for uni and a comfortable band t-shirt she'd picked up a couple of years ago at a concert were what she wore. And her socks didn't match. She looked back to the boy whose bed she was occupying. "Okay, so I get where you might think that, but today's laundry day. And 'sides, these pants are super comfortable."

Hikaru met his brother's eyes as he asked his next question. "Your boyfriend's?" He knew that Kaoru was developing a crush on the girl. He'd told him as much.

"Nnnno." Lizzy shook her head very slightly. "They're my brother's. I don't even have a boyfriend." She gave Hikaru a funny look. "Try not to accuse me of things you know nothing about," she told him while returning to her magazine.

Hikaru seemed to completely disregard anything the girl said. "Kaoru, she's still on my bed."

"You weren't using it," Kaoru said simply with a shrug.

"And what's wrong with your bed?"

Kaoru shrugged again. "Nothing. Lizzy just decided to use yours."

Lizzy raised a hand. "Can I just say that I was not aware that this was your bed until you mentioned it?"

"No," the two boys chorused, Kaoru in more of a teasing manner than Hikaru's bristly tone and crossed arms.

Lizzy began shifting from her stomach so that she could sit up. "I can move…"

"No, Lizzy," Kaoru turned to her, shooting his older twin a brief glare, "You don't have to move. Hikaru's just being a… what was the term you used? Th-the one about the green Christmas guy?"

Lizzy laughed, "A Grinch?"

"Yes! Hikaru is just being a Grinch."

"What's a Grinch?" Hikaru threw his arms up in exasperation as he plopped himself on his brother's mattress, and began kicking off his shoes.

Lizzy flopped back down on the blue bed, still giggling. "You can look it up. Hey, Kaoru, you currently have the entire internet at your fingertips; why don't you show your brother what we're talking about?"

Thus began the education of the Hitachiin twins in the ways of Dr. Seuss.


	4. Boredom Versus Employment

**Boredom versus Employment**

_OCxKaoru_

"You should get a job," Lizzy commented while looking at the ginger upside-down. Her head was hanging over the edge of her bed and her feet were up on the wall, her legs straight, creating a right triangle in the space between legs and bed with her legs as the hypotenuse.

"What?" Kaoru looked up from his phone – he was texting his brother – while sitting in one of her beanbag chairs on the other side of the room.

"You should get a job."

"Why?" He gave her a funny look. "I already have plenty of money."

"For the experience?" Lizzy rolled her eyes and shook her head. She rolled over so that she looked less silly and so that she could look at him properly. "It might make you wiser; less bored."

"What makes you say that I'm bored?" Kaoru closed his phone; he'd reply to Hikaru later.

"Kaoru, don't do that," Lizzy sighed.

"Do what?"

"Ask for my thinking behind things."

"Whhhhy?" Kaoru seemed to be picking up on Lizzy's speaking habit of extending sounds in her words. Also, he was a little bit suspicious.

"'Cause I'm bad at explaining my thinking."

"Explain anyway," he shrugged.

Lizzy frowned and pushed her lips out in a pout. "I don't want to sound mean, but just because you're bored doesn't mean I have to be the one to entertain you. I have a job and other classes and homework in those classes."

Kaoru's eyebrows scrunched up. He wasn't sure that he liked where this conversation was going.

"I have a fair amount of stuff going on in my life that keeps me occupied and I can't always keep you company, Kaoru. You need to fill up your time on your own." She sat up and crossed her legs. Being on her stomach wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing. "I mean what if your parents decide that you've been spending too much money or something and decide to cut you and your brother off? What would you do? You'd need to get a job and fast."

He was right. He didn't like where the conversation went. What if his parents _did_ cut him and Hikaru off? He supposed that they could borrow money from the other hosts… but not Kyoya. Definitely not Kyoya. Kyoya would want something in return. But… he didn't want to seem like a burden to the others. And… Hikaru probably wouldn't want to either. They both had their pride. Kaoru sighed, looking down at the phone still in his hands. "Yeah. I see what you're saying." He looked up to meet Lizzy's eyes. "But where would we get jobs?"


	5. Don't Move

**Don't Move**

_OCxKaoru starring Hikaru_

Hikaru was in the campus café sitting at one of the smaller tables quite alone, which he felt didn't suit him at all. He didn't like being alone, but there wasn't much he could do about it – Kaoru was elsewhere and the rest of the hosts were busy with classes and homework or, in Haruhi's case, a job. Hikaru barely knew his brother's whereabouts anymore because of that damn American girl. He was, in a way, jealous of the girl. She was easygoing, had great hair, found it easy to talk to people she didn't know, made people laugh – made _Kaoru_ laugh – and whenever she was in the room it seemed to him that he could never hold his twin's attention for long. It irked him that Kaoru found her interesting at all. She was just a girl. But, he had to admit, after running into her several more times, she had an… _alright_ fashion sense. He wasn't about to tell her that, though.

A sigh escaped his lips as he looked down at his MP3 player and began fiddling with it on the tabletop. It had a nice touch screen and internet capabilities and the university had pretty decent Wi-Fi. Lazily he began to check his e-mail.

The chair at the table adjacent to his scraped against the floor as it was moved. Hikaru neither noticed nor would he have cared had he noticed. He continued to browse the internet, mostly looking at shopping sites. If he wasn't also listening to music he would have heard the scratching of graphite on paper. After a few minutes Hikaru grew bored and moved to put the MP3 player in his jacket pocket, but he was startled into stopping when a familiar female voice commanded urgently, "Don't move!"

"Wha—?" Hikaru turned his head confusedly toward the direction from which the voice originated. It was _her_.

"I said 'don't move'!" Lizzy repeated with her eyes wide as she stared intently at Hikaru, a sketchbook open on her lap and a somewhat short pencil in her right hand. Surprised, he turned his head back to where it originally was. "No, no, your chin was more down," she directed. He tipped his chin down. "Too much, Hikaru! A little bit up."

He complied, much to his own bewilderment. "Is this right?"

"Talking is moving. But yes, that's perfect." Lizzy sounded pretty excited for someone who knew that her model for her sketch disliked her. Hikaru could hear the smile in her voice.

"What are you doing, crazy girl?" he inquired with a sneer.

"How many times do I have to tell you that my name is 'Lizzy'?" the so-named girl asked in exasperation.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I know. Stop talking; I want to get your jaw right and if you keep talking it'll look stupid."

"Answer my question."

Lizzy sighed and rolled her eyes. "Your pose and posture are perfect."

Hikaru turned his head again to give her a "you're crazy" look. "What?" He was slouching in his seat, his shoulders hunched and his right leg was resting on his left knee, creating the shape of a four. "Perfect?" he repeated incredulously.

Her eyes flicked up to meet his. "What did I say about moving and talking? Oh, that's right, I said 'don't'." Hikaru complied, but certainly not happily. "The way that you're sitting is perfect for the emotion that I want to convey in my character for class."

The black-haired boy snorted none-too-politely. Like he cared about Lizzy's assignments for class. "And why aren't you stalking my brother for this?" Not that he wanted her to. He didn't want her to stalk Kaoru; in fact, he wanted her to stop hanging out with him. But Hikaru wasn't about to tell her that, either.

Lizzy stopped sketching for a moment. "I don't stalk him; we're friends. And I'm not stalking you, either!" She returned to the sketch, carefully outlining and detailing. "Besides, I haven't seen him all day and he hasn't texted me back." Her hand stopped again. "I think he might be mad at me."

This time when Hikaru turned she didn't tell him not to move, which he took as a sign that she really was concerned about how Kaoru thought of her. He observed her; she looked insecure and worried and she wasn't looking up at him, just at the sketch on her lap. Hikaru sighed. "I highly doubt that my little brother is mad at you."

Lizzy looked up, her eyebrows furrowed. "Really?"

This was another thing that Hikaru didn't like about her; she was cute and that made him want to like her, but he was stubborn. He was determined to keep his opinion of her unchanged. He shook his head. "You're so stupid." It was obvious to him that Kaoru wouldn't be mad at Lizzy. He _liked_ her, liked her. Which lead to another thing that Hikaru didn't like about the American girl; he didn't know how she felt about his brother and he was almost positive that she didn't see him the way Kaoru wanted her to.

"I resent that," Lizzy laughed, relieved by Hikaru's reassurance. "Now, turn back around, I'm not quite done yet."

Hikaru sighed almost inaudibly but did as he was told once more. He began to think about his brother and Lizzy. He was, in a way, also jealous of Kaoru; he had made a new friend outside of the Host Club so easily. But, well, it seemed like she was becoming his friend, too, if ever-so-slowly.


End file.
